The works of Swiss visual artist John Armleder are currently in the spotlight of several Geneva galleries, like the Lovay Fine Arts gallery which is exhibiting until January 5, 2025 boxes made from objects found, collected or purchased by the artist.
In Geneva, the Lovay Fine Arts gallery offers rarely exhibited sculptures and works on paper by John Armleder. A series of collages dates from the 1960s and is made from playing cards that John Armleder found on the ground during his urban walks.
The Geneva artist also exhibits wooden boxes hung on the wall in which we find feathers, pebbles, decorative butterflies, pieces of printed fabric, chalk and other objects found by chance. These works, entitled “Some flying objects”, had only been shown once, in Carouge (GE), in the mid-1960s. “Half of the objects inside are not attached. (…) The one who will use it will find its meaning, its history, its literature in a way, and I am not at all trying to impose it”, indicates John Armleder in the Vertigo show on November 26.
Chance and indeterminacy
The process refers to other artists, such as George Brecht (1926-2008), who have always favored chance and indetermination, two driving forces of the visual artist: “These are found or collected objects, which interested me for a reason or another, which I had kept in bags at home and at one point, I decided to sectorize them into these boxes”, explains John Armleder.
A major figure in contemporary art, John Armleder continues to explore his relationship to creation and art: “One of the definitions that we can give is that it is a space of freedom like no other “We have an enormous privilege (…), which, in my opinion, also gives us a certain number of responsibilities.
In addition to the Lovey Fine Arts gallery, the Olivier Varenne gallery, the Skopia gallery and the Barbier-Mueller Museum are currently exhibiting works by John Armleder. A wonderful opportunity to treat yourself to a swig of the works of this Swiss artist who is quite rare here.
Radio subject: Florence Grivel
Adaptation web: mh
John Armleder, “Soubresauts”, Lovey Fine Arts Gallery, Geneva, until 5 January 2025.
Swiss
